Ensuring Safe Motherhood by Using Information and Communication Technology Tools in Behavioral Change Communication

ABSTRACT

Mothers are the primary caregivers, nurturers, and providers of family care and stability. Therefore maternal death isnot only a personal tragedy but isdevastating for the entirefamily and frequently extends to a community. Considering the societal roles that mothers play, it is particularly important that countries undertake all possible measures to reduce maternal death. This article focuses on information and communication technology as an available tool when aiming at the reduction of maternal death. This tool can play a decisive role in behavioral change communication and safe motherhood and raise awareness among people, contribute to training and capacity building, and help in advocacy at the grassroots level.     

Proportional cause-specific reversed hazards model

The proportional reversed hazards model explains the multiplicative effect of covariates on the baseline reversed hazard rate function of lifetimes. In the present study, we introduce a proportional cause-specific reversed hazards model. The proposed regression model facilitates the analysis of failure time data with multiple causes of failure under left censoring. We estimate the regression parameters using a partial likelihood approach. We provide Breslow's type estimators for the cumulative cause-specific reversed hazard rate functions. Asymptotic properties of the estimators are discussed. Simulation studies are conducted to assess their performance. We illustrate the applicability of the proposed model using a real data set.     

Experiences of children in armed conflict in Nepal

This paper is based on the real life stories of child soldiers and children directly affected by armed conflict from different parts of the country from 2005 to 2009. These field based interviews were conducted with about 400 children between ages 12 and 18 from various researches throughout the country and with participants of HimRights programs. This article is based on primary information of children affected by armed conflict. The aim of this paper is to elaborate on the circumstances that led to their involvement as child soldiers, their expectations and harrowing experiences, and the negative and positive impact on children. The paper focuses on how both sides of conflicting parties used children as child soldiers, forcibly or voluntarily. Some children were attracted to Maoists ideology and rhetoric, singing/dancing, food/clothing/education while others were abducted or forced to join through the “one house one person policy”. Some children joined the insurgency as the last resort due to lack of community support, and after the deaths of their parents. It also looks at how schools were used as recruitment centers and battleground during this time. Gender-based violence has occurred rampantly during armed conflict in Nepal but respondents do not want to discuss openly about it, nor are government or civil society. Furthermore, this paper also deals with challenges of reintegration of child soldiers. They have had to face ostracism in their homes, schools and communities and are using substance abuse as a coping mechanism and the need for support and empathy at both the societal and policy level is indicated.     

Modelling and analysis of recall-based competing risks data

In this paper we consider the analysis of recall-based competing risks data. The chance of an individual recalling the exact time to event depends on the time of occurrence of the event and time of observation of the individual. In particular, it is assumed that the probability of recall depends on the time elapsed since the occurrence of an event. In this study we consider the likelihood-based inference for the analysis of recall-based competing risks data. The likelihood function is constructed by incorporating the information about the probability of recall. We consider the maximum likelihood estimation of parameters. Simulation studies are carried out to examine the performance of the estimators. The proposed estimation procedure is applied to a real life data set.     

Test for independence between time to failure and cause of failure in competing risks with k causes

In this paper, we develop a simple nonparametric test for testing the independence of time to failure and cause of failure in competing risks set up. We generalise the test to the situation where failure data is right censored. We obtain the asymptotic distribution of the test statistics for complete and censored data. The efficiency loss due to censoring is studied using Pitman efficiency. The performance of the proposed test is evaluated through simulations. Finally we illustrate our test procedure using three real data sets.     

Serials Spoken Here–Reports of Conferences,Institutes and Seminars

ABSTRACT

This quarter's column offers a report from the Acquisitions Institute at Timberline Lodge, held May 14–17, 2016, in Timberline Lodge, Oregon, and also provides coverage of multiple sessions from the Kraemer Copyright Conference, held June 6–7, 2016, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Some reports are collected, as well, from the NASIG Annual Conference, held June 9–12, 2016, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference, held June 23–28, 2016, in Orlando, Florida. Lastly, there is a report from the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) World Library and Information Congress, held August 13–19, 2016, in Columbus, Ohio. Topics covered include open access, linked data, copyright, text mining, e-resource management, and digitization.     

Interactive effects of urbanization and year on invasive and native ant diversity of sacred groves of South India

Urban Ecosystems - Urbanization is a major threat to native biodiversity. Invasion of tramp species is a major consequence of urbanization, which might threaten native species. Ants are established...